Wednesday, October 29, 2014

"more than we ask or imagine!"

El Paso proved to be much more than just a little corner of the country!  God treated us to more than one special showing of grace...provision...and love.

His GRACE: having all our family in the same city; finding a Spanish-speaking church in which we could help out; new friends; making great headway in obtaining U.S. citizenship for Germán (after years of struggle!)...

His PROVISIONa doctor who never charged me for my visits, a car donated to us just when the one we had was coming apart, and a "too precise to be a coincidence" move on His part: when we had been there a year, we saw that we'd need to extend the lease on the place we rented for another few months.  That meant another big chunk of money.  Not knowing of our need,  a dear friend and her husband (supporters of ours) sent us an "extra" check, which covered the rent completely...plus a little left over!

And...ahhh, LOVE!  Friends of Dan and KC thought that Debbie would be a good match for another friend of theirs!  They made sure Debbie and Steve met, (and when they got married, their wedding bulletin included "Matchmakers of the bride and groom"!)

Germán and I both felt peace as we watched their romance develop. Rather than  go into details, I'll just suggest you visit (or re-visit) the post I wrote about one-and-a-half years ago, where I give a few more interesting details...AND you can read (or re-read) the wedding poem I wrote for them.  Here's the link:

we-doand-they-did.html

We had already returned to Quito towards the end of 2004, but in April of 2005 we were happy to fly back up to El Paso for two special events:  Debbie and Steve's wedding, and...at long last!...the formal naturalization ceremony for Germán as a U.S. citizen.

El Paso still holds many sweet memories, and we look back on our time with gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His kindness in arranging things so that we could be with our children, and  for all His blessings, that came one-after-another.  He is amazing!
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Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever."
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Seeing our children grow up to marry believers and rear their children with a knowledge of Jesus, thus continuing the "throughout all generations" of our family, is one of the greatest blessings we know!

If you haven't experienced this yet in your family, please don't ever give up! Our children went through their own uncertainties and difficult times, just like yours may be doing.  (If you've followed my blog, or at least read some of the posts, you will have noticed that we've had an abundance of trials, too, separately and as a family!)

So don't think that this blessing of having all your kids following the Lord is not going to happen!  Never stop praying for them, never stop loving them, never stop trusting in what it says in Isaiah 54:13:  "All your sons (children) will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children's peace."  (If you'd like to share with me, let me know, and  I'll pray along with you!)
 
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Have a great week!  May you feel God's peace and joy, no matter what your circumstances are.  He loves you!



Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The little girl whose healing hurt

In the last post I offered to tell you a story. Here it is. I heard it years ago, and it has stayed with me.  You could call it a parable.


A small town was struck with a disease that left its victims crippled.  Among the affected were two little girls.  Susie came from a wealthy family; Betsy lived with her grandmother, who was quite poor.  Both the girls were devastated by this affliction, and their families tried to find the best way to help them.
                                                      
Susie's parents took her to a doctor who fitted her with leg braces.  With the braces, she could walk again!

  
Whenever Betsy saw Susie, she felt jealous, and asked her grandmother to buy her braces, too. But there wasn't enough money.
                                   

 

What her grandmother could and did do was massage Betsy's legs and feet every day, trying to strengthen the muscles.  How it hurt!  Betsy cried when she went through what was, for her, a daily torture.  She thought she'd never be able to walk...or run...or jump and play again.

Little by little, Betsy's legs grew stronger and straighter. Finally the day came when she could walk...then run...then jump and play outside with her friends!  With her grandmother's persistence, she had overcome the disease that had crippled her.  She was free!

  Then one day when she was walking through town, she caught sight of Susie. She saw that Susie still wore her leg braces. She could still walk, slowly and laboriously, but she couldn't run...or jump and play. Her muscles had atrophied because they hadn't been used for so long. What had seemed like such an immediate, easy and wonderful way to help Susie had turned into a prison for her.


Betsy's jealousy turned to pity, and she appreciated the pain her grandmother had put her through every day, realizing that, in the end, she was the one who had been blessed and restored.

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I have to admit that it's hard to be "patient in affliction" (Romans 12:12).  Like Betsy, our hindsight is much better than our foresight, isn't it?  After it's all over, we can see how much we learned, grew and developed through the trial.

It's also hard to "consider it pure joy...whenever you face trials of many kinds"...but the verses continue, "because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  (James 1:2-4)

Having come through the pain of difficulties, trials and challenges, like Betsy we can put aside any discouragement and jealousy, and realize that we, too, have been blessed and restored, and that the pain we've gone through has made us stronger.
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Since this post is long enough already, I'll continue sharing our Journey with you next time.  Until then, God bless you!!



Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Our little corner of the world

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book, before one of them came to be."  (Psalm 138:16)

We watch our lives unfold little-by-little, but God not only knows everything that's going to happen...He's the One who planned it all!  "For I know the plans I have for you...plans to give you hope and a future."  (Jer. 29:11)

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In 2001, Dan graduated from college and prepared to continue his studies in physical therapy.  Therapy school is really expensive, so he found a great way to finance his future.  He joined the U.S. Army!  He joined as an officer, a second lieutenant, and the Army paid for his schooling, as well as his salary.  Towards the end of his first year, he married KC, a lovely girl whom we had met when she came down on one of the mission trips that Dan led.  We traveled to the States for the wedding...and if you'd like to read (or refresh your memory) about it, and read (or re-read) the poem I wrote for them, you can go to the post at this link: 
were-you-married-in-april.html

Then in 2001, two things happened.  Debbie graduated from college with her nursing degree,
and we traveled to the States for a long-delayed furlough.  We had over a year coming to us.  We settled in El Paso, Texas.  For about a year-and-a-half, we were all together again!  (A very special treat!)  How was that?

Dan had finished his master's degree, and had to tell the Army where he preferred to be stationed...first, second, and third choices.  He put El Paso for the first...and got it without any problem, because NOBODY else wanted to go live in that little far-off corner of the country!  (Besides, the military hospital there had asked for someone bilingual.)
Dan and KC bought a house, and Debbie moved in with us, in the small duplex we had rented, and got her certification to work as an RN.  Before finding a job, she went to Haiti for three months to volunteer at a hospital...and came home with hepatitis!

What did Germán and I do during our furlough?  He worked for a while in one of HCJB's U.S.-Mexican-border radio stations, and then helped out in a Hispanic church.  He occasionally preached, held Bible studies, did visitation, etc .  And I was able to contribute to that ministry with music and ...stories!  When we left, at the good-bye party, one of the ladies asked sadly, "Now who's going to make us cry?"  (When I sang, I tended to choke up and then they would!)...and "Now who's going to tell us stories?"

At home, I had a field day trying out new recipes!  I had taken my several hundred cookbooks out of storage, and being in a place where I could actually get all the ingredients (which doesn't always happen here!)  I tried out recipe-after-recipe...over 430, I think was the final count!

The second half of our time in El Paso was even more eventful, and I'll tell you about it very soon in another post. 


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"They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing your righteousness...The Lord...has compassion on all He has made."  (Psalm 145:7,9)

Celebrate His kindness and love along with us, for all He has done for you, and all He IS and CAN BE for you.  

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Have a great week...meet me here again, and besides letting you know the really cool things God did for us while we were in "our little corner of the world", I'll tell you one of my stories.



Wednesday, October 8, 2014

"H-Balm"...a poem for when you want to cry

     
                   H-Balm

Lord, what's in that bottle You keep?
   Your tears...when you weep,
   I nestle you in the palm of My hand.
   (See your name?  It's carved right over here.)
     And though your emotions seem to slip through my fingers,
     not a drop is lost, not a single tear;
        for every one is caught and kept,
        no matter why or where you've wept;
                                                 soul-floods of anger, joy and pain...
                                                 I treasure all this priceless rain.

     I can see that!  My bottle's so full!
     But WHY?
     If other people notice,
     they'll think You like me to cry!                                                          
     (sigh...)
                                                                                               

                         ...You have another bottle there...
                         What's in it?  More tears?  
                         (As if I didn't have enough already!)    

                        

                            
                       Dear Child, let Me show you.
                       If we take this second bottle,
                       and mix its contents with those of yours,
                       we get a heavenly healing balm
                                 that eases pain,
                                 that helps you rest,
                                 that soothes you,
                                 that restores.
                               
                       It has a fragrance full of love,
                                 a formula divine.
                                       You see,
       that bottle holds your tears...this other one holds Mine.                                                                                                                                                         
*****************************************************************Becky Rhon****************                               
              
Different versions say it in different ways, but in this case I like the imagery of the King James:

"Thou tellest my wanderings; put thou my tears into thy bottle; are they not in thy book?"  (Psalm 56:8)

It's comforting to know that because Jesus became a man, He passed through the same kinds of things that make us cry. He understands our tears.

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses..."   (Hebrews 4:15)

And Isaiah 53:3 tells us that He was "a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering."           

In case you wondered, yes...I've felt like crying these last couple of days.  I doubt Jesus had fibromyalgia, but He certainly knew what it was to feel physical pain...and also emotional pain.  He understands my tears.

And if you want to cry, He'll understand yours.

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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

She INSISTED that these were COWS, not lions...

 In the summer of 2000, we had a splendid chance to have our kids back in Ecuador...without having to wait until Christmas!  Dan organized and brought down a group of students on a short-term mission trip.  (And Debbie, who was also at APU, was with them!)


During the three weeks that they were here, farmed out to different Ecuadorian families, they got a taste of a variety of ministry opportunities, some of them involving things they had never seen up-close before.                                                                                                                                                              
   
They worked for a few days at an orphanage, having brought down a TV and some videos like Veggie Tales and Focus on the Family cartoons . (The orphanage wasn't a Christian organization, so they hoped this would plant seeds in little hearts...and big ones.)   They treated the kids to a day at the zoo, a very special occasion for them.  Dan was with one little three-year-old girl who, when she saw the lions, insisted that they were cows!  She refused to hear anything to the contrary.  They were cows, not lions!



Then the group went out to Machachi, a town about an hour away from Quito, where one of Germán's brothers pastored a church.  Their objective was to help, in both a financial and a practical way, with some construction being done for the church.  They provided a barbeque for everyone so that, after working together, they could all eat together.
On Sunday they took all of our church (Nueva Creación) to spend the day up at the hot springs in Papallacta.  Besides enjoying the springs themselves, they had a service, and Germán baptized almost a dozen people.
                                                                                                                                                    

Back in Quito, the next "adventure" was hard for some of the kids to experience.  They went out to one of the city dumps, where people who live there try to make a living going through garbage to find recyclable items.  The conditions those people live in really impacted the group. They took food, cut and washed hair, played soccer with the children, etc.

The final stretch of their time here was spent in the eastern jungles.  Flown in and out by Missionary Aviation Fellowship, they stayed several days in a Waorani village.  (You have probably heard them called "Aucas" - the ones that
martyred the five missionaries in 1956.)   Going in with a Colombian missionary,  the students helped with some construction, had some VBS activities for the children and joined the villagers for a nightly service in which the sermons were spoken in three languages!  The missionary used Spanish, a bilingual Waorani translated into their indigenous language, and Dan translated into English for the student group.

This turned out to be only the first of several summer mission trips that Dan, and later Debbie, would lead.  We were not only grateful that we could watch the way God was using our children, but also joyful  for the extra opportunity to see them and welcome them home!
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There was another Father who watched His Child work, as we did ours (although on a much larger scale!). Human mission trips do what they can to help, alleviate suffering, encourage believers...but God's Son came on a "mission trip" that provided ALL that we would ever need: help in any area of life, the comfort of His arms around us in our pain, the incomparable encouragement of knowing that His power and strength are available to us whenever we need them.  God watched His Son give the finishing, vital steps to complete this amazing plan for our salvation... the Cross  (during which He had to turn His back on His Son for just a moment - how terrible it must have been!) and then the Resurrection... and then had the immense joy of welcoming Him back to Heaven...welcoming Him Home!
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The fruits of Jesus' mission trip to Earth are eternal; they never change or expire or run out of stock.  "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order than in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus."  (Ephesians 2:6-7)
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Have a wonderful week!